This collection is the follow up to 2021’s THE HAUNTING SEASON, with more spooky Gothic tales for the holidays. Again, the stories were good overall, with some I enjoyed more than others:

• Host by Kiran Millwood Hargrave: 4 Stars (séance gone wrong — or right?)
• Inferno by Laura Shepherd-Robinson: 4 Stars (Dante-inspired tale)
• The Old Play by Andrew Michael Hurley: 2 Stars (son visits his father performing in an annual play)

• A Double Thread by Imogen Hermes Gowar: 3 Stars (mean girl needs a new gown for a Christmas ball)
• The Salt Miracles by Natasha Pulley: 4.5 Stars (missing pilgrims on an eerie remote island)
• Banished by Elizabeth Macneal: 4 Stars (woman called to banish a vengeful spirit)

• The Gargoyle by Bridget Collins: 3 Stars (writer’s block in a creepy town)
• The Master of the House by Stuart Turton: 4.25 Stars (father searches for his missing son)
• Ada Lark by Jess Kidd: 2 Stars (child forced to work for a phony medium)

• Jenkin by Catriona Ward: 4.25 Stars (mysterious lie-detecting cat)
• Widow’s Walk by Susan Stokes-Chapman: 4 Stars (widow makes sought-after fans for a Christmas ball)
• Carol of the Bells and Chains by Laura Purcell: 4 Stars (Krampus legend)

Twelve spooky stories for 12 nights of Christmas — averaged out to 3.58 stars. ( )

3.5***

Subtitle: Eight Ghostly Tales for Long Winter Nights

The stories (and their authors) in this collection are:
A Study in Black and White by [author:Bridget Collins|14717647]
Thwaite’s Tenant by [author:Imogen Hermes Gowar|16834390]
The Eel Singers by [author:Natasha Pulley|8446650]
Lily Wilt by [author:Jess Kidd|15044123]
The Chillingham Chair by [author:Laura Purcell|22701274]
The Hanging of the Greens by [author:Andrew Michael Hurley|3439810]
Confinement by [author:Kiran Millwood Hargrave|5868487]
Monster by [author:Elizabeth Macneal|17715039]

I enjoy short stories. I marvel at how much a talented author can cram into them. No wasted words. No over-the-top exposition. No cast of thousands. In this case they are, as the title hints, “haunting” tales featuring ghosts, monsters, witches, evil spirits and spooky locations. I particularly liked A Study in Black and White, The Chillingham Chair and Confinement.

All are set during winter months, with several being set around Christmas. But there is no holiday cheer here. They are Spooky with a capital ‘S’! ( )

The Haunting Season is a collection of eight short stories by well-established contemporary writers of horror and paranormal fiction. This volume delivers what it promises in its subtitle: Ghostly tales for long winter nights. It taps into the British (but not only) tradition of the telling of horror stories at Christmas and, perhaps unsurprisingly, this is reflected both in the setting of the majority of the stories (Victorian era or thereabouts, in winter, if not specifically during festive season) and in style (redolent of the traditional “English ghost story”). The fact that seven out of the eight featured authors are women is also significant and surely has an impact on the general “feel” of the collection, given that more than half of the pieces reflect the feminist Gothic approach much favoured by contemporary horror writers.

All the stories are well-written and there are none which I would describe as disappointing, except possibly Natasha Pulley’s The Eel Singers. That, I hasten to add, is not because of the quality of the writing (indeed, the story is one of the most effective and eerie in the book), but because it features characters from Pulley’s earlier novels and seems to presuppose a familiarity with those novels.

That said, the collection as a whole left me a bit cold, because of a certain “sameness” in the selection. I have reviewed several works of feminist Gothic on this blog (and thoroughly loved some of them), but it has now become a veritable sub-genre, and the theme, however laudable it is, is no longer enough to make a story striking. Thus, Imogen Hermes Gowar’s Thwaite’s Tenant and Laura Purcell’s Gothic romance The Chillingham Chair are suspenseful but hardly memorable. The folk-horror tinged Confinement, by Kiran Millwood Hargrave is, in my view, stronger, in its description of a new mother’s obsession about a revenant witch out to get her baby. A postscript also reveals that this story has personal significance for the author. Even so, it is hard to better an iconic classic such as The Yellow Wallpaper. The eponymous Monster in Elizabeth Macneal’s contribution is a giant fossil which the protagonist Victor hopes to uncover at Lyme Regis when honeymooning with his young wife. As one would expect, “monster” is also what Victor himself turns out to be.

Bridget Collins’ haunted-house story A Study in Black and White does not attempt to adopt a contemporary “take” on the supernatural. This is a pastiche of the traditional ghost story – strong in the vibes of M.R. James and his contemporaries. Lily Wilt by Jess Kidd features a photographer sent to capture a beautiful dead woman on film, only to end up falling in love with her.

And then there’s Andrew Michael Hurley’s The Hanging of the Greens. This story feels as if it has stumbled into this book from another, totally different collection. It is a folk-horror work typical of the author, where the violence is understated until it grips you by the throat, where the presence of “evil” can be explained in psychological terms but the supernatural seems to be around the corner. This is a strong story, albeit one which feels out of place.

The Haunting Season has been a bestseller and, as a lover of supernatural fiction, it might seem mean of me to appear less than enthusiastic about a volume which is bringing horror to readers of the mainstream. But perhaps, this is precisely the issue I have with the collection. It is great as an introduction to some of the best authors currently writing in this genre. The stories are fine in themselves, and newcomers will find much to enjoy and will – hopefully – be tempted to explore the further reaches of contemporary horror writing. However, I suspect that for seasoned readers of supernatural fiction, this book might turn out to be a tad disappointing.

https://endsoftheword.blogspot.com/2021/12/the-haunting-season.html ( )

A good mix of modern gothic creepy stories. I did indeed read them on long winter nights and they worked quite well. ( )

The Haunting Season has 8 ghostly tales by authors I have read before and a couple that I haven't. This is one of those books I have been meaning to read for some time but keep putting off as I'm not a fan of short stories.

My rating is for overall, some stories I liked more than others. My favourite was Confinment by Kiran Millward Hargreaves which is about a new mother who is convinced there is a witch after her baby. Also I enjoyed Thwaite's Tenant by Imogen Hermes Gower about a wife and her son hiding from an abusive husband.

I did feel that some the stories were very much the same, old houses with things that go bump in the night. Again not being a fan of short stories I did find myself getting a little bored but plodded on anyway.

Overall the book was ok. I didn't think any of them were particularly scary but some did have an atmospheric feel to them. I enjoy ghostly tales but I think I prefer a full story rather than short ones. ( )